WHINNY BRAE. 129 



formed of a flat sandy beach. Near Whinny-hall, however, 

 and a short distance from the shore, a range of greenstone 

 cliffs exhibits some interesting appearances ; — the trap rises 

 through the slate and sandstone strata, and from the lower 

 side of an overlying portion, a mass of greenstone issues. 

 All the strata, when in contact with the plutonic rock, are 

 highly indurated, the slates acquiring the compactness of 

 jasper and Lydian stone, and the sandstone passing into gra- 

 nular quartz-rock. Masses also of the slate are entangled 

 in the greenstone, some of which are so changed as almost 

 to put on the appearance of striped Siberian jasper. In 

 their position these slates evince much disturbance, and are 

 convoluted to a considerable distance from the greenstone. 

 (Plate XV., Fig. 1.) Near this, the extensive opening of 

 Whinny Brae quarry has exposed some interesting pheno- 

 mena. The strata are alternations of sandstone, limestone, 

 slate-clay, bituminous shale, and clay-ironstone, with an in- 

 cluded parallel vein of claystone, all of which sink to the 

 E. N.E. at an angle of 25°. In their course the rocks exhi- 

 bit two gentle undulations, and are shifted in one place to 

 a considerable extent. Near the eastern extremity of the 

 claystone, the mean breadth of which does not appear to 

 be more than three feet, a vein of about a foot in breadth 

 issues from its under surface ; it crosses the shale strata 

 at an angle of about 70°, and is probably connected with a 

 lower mass of felspar, which the quarrying operations have 

 exposed. In regard to the effects of this claystone on the 

 strata, they are completely demonstrative of its violent pro- 

 trusion and former highly heated state. Masses of the 

 shale are imbedded in it in innumerable places, and it is 

 traversed near the junction by an infinity of small felspar 

 veins. In some places the slate appears to have been frac- 

 tured into minute fragments, which have been subsequently 



